East Palestine Train Derailment Lawsuit: $600M Settlement and Payments

The East Palestine train derailment lawsuit produced a $600 million class action settlement with Norfolk Southern, approved by a federal judge in September 2024 and now paying roughly 55,000 households, businesses, and individuals who lived, worked, or owned property within 20 miles of the February 3, 2023 crash site. A separate $310 million federal enforcement settlement covers cleanup and government penalties. Payments to residents began going out in late 2025 and continued through 2026 after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a final round of objections.

Who the Settlement Covers

The class includes anyone who lived, worked, owned property, or operated a business within 20 miles of the derailment site between February 3, 2023, and April 26, 2024.¹ Dozens of individual lawsuits were consolidated into In re East Palestine Train Derailment (Case No. 4:23-cv-00242) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, before Judge Benita Y. Pearson.²

Norfolk Southern agreed to pay the full $600 million without any reversion of unclaimed funds and without admitting liability or wrongdoing.³ About 54,000 households filed claims. Opt-outs were rare: 0.18% for eligible households and 0.31% for eligible businesses.⁴ The deadline to submit claims closed on August 22, 2024, and no new claims are being accepted.⁵

The court approved attorneys’ fees of up to $162 million (27% of the fund) and $15,000 service awards for each class representative. Four firms served as co-lead counsel: Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh and Jardine; Grant and Eisenhofer; Simmons Hanly Conroy; and Morgan and Morgan.¹

How the $600 Million Is Divided

The fund is split into three pools with different rules.

Household payments — $265 million. This is the largest pool and covers direct payments to households. A point-based formula weighs distance from the derailment site, direction, length of displacement, household size, property acreage, and property damage. A “base case” household in the Village of East Palestine with two adults and three children, one acre of land, and displacement of four to seven days was allocated $70,000. Households at the outer edge of the 20-mile zone can receive as little as a few hundred dollars.⁶⁷

Personal injury payments — $120 million. This pool is open only to class members who were within 10 miles of the site, and participation is voluntary. No proof of bodily injury is required. In exchange, the class member signs a release of all past, present, and future personal injury claims against Norfolk Southern, including future health effects. Class counsel set the base value at $25,000 per person, with adjustments for proximity, symptoms, medical treatment, and age.¹

Business losses — $25 million. The smallest pool reimburses actual net business losses on a dollar-for-dollar basis, with a pro rata reduction if total claims exceed the fund.

One more rule affects almost every check: any previous financial assistance Norfolk Southern paid to a resident is deducted from that resident’s settlement amount.⁶

What People Are Actually Getting

The personal injury numbers have come in far below what residents were told to expect. Class counsel initially projected an average payout of $10,000 for residents within two miles, then revised the projection upward to $25,000 per person in August 2024. More people opted in than expected. Because the $120 million pool is fixed, each share got smaller.

Epiq, the claims administrator, calculated the value of a single point at approximately $124.60, which puts the average personal injury case at roughly $12,400. Some residents have reported receiving $5,000 or less. One person who lived just 0.01 miles from the derailment site said they received slightly over $10,000.⁸

Anyone who accepted a personal injury payment gave up the right to sue Norfolk Southern later, including for illnesses that appear years from now. Some residents have publicly expressed regret about signing that release after new health issues emerged. Beth Kosar, an East Palestine resident, has said she wants to leave the class because of symptoms that developed after she filed her claim.⁹

The Appeals That Held Up the Money

Five class members objected to the settlement and appealed: Reverend Joseph Sheely, Zsuzsa Troyan, Tamara Freeze, Sharon Lynch, and Carly Tunno, all represented by Florida attorney David Graham. Judge Pearson ordered them to post an $850,000 appeal bond, $825,000 for estimated administrative costs and $25,000 for legal expenses, by the end of January 2025. They did not pay.⁴

Their motion to extend the deadline arrived on March 21, 2025, a day after it was due. The district court denied the extension as untimely. In November 2025, the Sixth Circuit affirmed and dismissed the appeals, finding that the objectors offered no valid justification for missing the bond and were unlikely to win on the merits.¹⁰ The objectors petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in early March 2026, clearing the last legal barrier to full distribution.⁹

Where the Payments Stand

Epiq was appointed as substitute claims administrator in June 2025, replacing Kroll. Partial personal injury awards were mailed in December 2025. Final personal injury payments went out on March 31, 2026. Direct household payments were expected by the end of June 2026. Business loss claims remain under review, with payments anticipated later in 2026.⁵

Can You Still Sue Norfolk Southern Separately?

Not if you stayed in the class. The opt-out deadline passed in July 2024, and class members are barred from suing Norfolk Southern over any claim that was or could have been raised in the class action.¹

Residents who did opt out have filed their own suits. The largest, Hickman, et al. v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company, was filed January 31, 2025, in Franklin County, Ohio, on behalf of more than 700 current and former residents and businesses. Additional suits were filed in Franklin County, Cuyahoga County, and Philadelphia County in February 2025.¹¹ Resident Jami Wallace is among those who opted out of the personal injury settlement.⁹

The Separate $310 Million Federal Settlement

This one does not put money in residents’ pockets. It is a government enforcement settlement, negotiated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the EPA, and announced in May 2024. The federal complaint, filed in March 2023, alleged unlawful discharges of pollutants and hazardous substances.¹²

The agreement requires Norfolk Southern to pay an estimated $235 million for past and future cleanup, a $15 million Clean Water Act civil penalty, $25 million for a 20-year community health program (medical monitoring and mental health services), $15 million for a decade of groundwater and surface water monitoring, $15 million for a 10-year private drinking water well monitoring fund, roughly $6 million for remediation of Leslie Run and Sulphur Run, and $175,000 for natural resource damages.¹³ It also mandates additional hot-bearing detection equipment and formal procedures for coordinating with first responders before any future vent-and-burn operations.

Norfolk Southern was not criminally charged. The company has estimated that its total costs from the derailment, including both settlements and safety upgrades, will exceed $1 billion.¹³

1
East Palestine Train Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions
2
GovInfo. USCOURTS-ohnd-4:23-cv-00242
3
ClassAction.org. East Palestine Train Derailment Settlement Agreement
4
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In Re East Palestine Train Derailment, Nos. 24-3852/3880/25-3342
5
East Palestine Train Settlement. East Palestine Train Settlement Home
6
PBS NewsHour. Judge Approves $600 Million Settlement for Ohio Residents Near Train Derailment
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East Palestine Train Settlement. Plan of Distribution
8
Spectrum News 1. East Palestine Personal Injury Settlement
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Ideastream. Concerns Linger Over East Palestine Train Derailment Settlement
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The Intelligencer. A Day Late and $850,000 Short: East Palestine Derailment Settlement Appeals Dismissed
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SEC. Norfolk Southern Corporation SEC Filing
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U.S. Department of Justice. United States Reaches Over $310 Million Settlement With Norfolk Southern
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EPA. United States Reaches Over $310 Million Settlement With Norfolk Southern